Consequences of importing genetic materials considering genotype by environment interaction and replacement interval in dairy cattle

The present study was aimed to assess the role of genotype× environment interaction (G×E) and generation interval on the genetic gain caused by importing the genetic materials of dairy cattle in a country without advanced breeding program. Changing allele substitution effects of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) underlying the trait was used to simulate G×E. To this end, three levels of 100 (control), 75 and 50% overlapping of QTL effects in imported sires at the heritability levels of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5, as well as three scenarios of continuous replacing and discontinuous replacing with one and two generations of foreign genetic materials were considered. Moreover, the effect of decreasing the accuracy of genomic prediction in traits with the low level of heritability was investigated. Based on the performance of daughters of sires in the local population of control scenario, import-based strategies were better than on the strategies of local population. The genetic correlation created in 75% and 50% overlapping of QTL effects were as 0.7 and 0.5, respectively. Although the trend of genetic response increased by decreasing genetic correlation over the time, it was not equal to origin population. Maximum genetic gain (2.56) was observed with a heritability of 0.5 in continuous replacing and absence of G×E. A decrease in the accuracy of prediction resulted in exacerbation of G×E. In general, more genetic improvement is transmitted from origin population to local population only by importing the genetic materials related to populations with higher genetic mean and also by considering G×E in different traits.